Superblock

Talks between the city and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to resolve a standoff over the long-stalled "superblock" project have ended, and Baltimore will move to condemn foundation-owned property in the six-block area critical to west-side redevelopment, city officials said yesterday. City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler had been leading negotiations with one of the city's largest charitable foundations in an effort to avert a court fight over the property, part of an area viewed as a key link between Charles Center to the east and the University of Maryland complex to the west.

In the middle of Glen Burnie's urban renewal district sits a little piece of undeveloped property that's become the most fretted over acreage in North County.The Superblock -- 5.6 acres serving as an oversized parking lot -- has sat vacant for years, the last unfinished piece of the downtown revitalization.Frustrated with the lack of movement on the project, a group of local businessmen formed a committee earlier this year to try to get the block developed.Now, after numerous meetings and consultations, the group has lined up three developers who are interested in the project, said Danny Boyd, a member of the Town Center Committee.

A lawsuit spearheaded by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos challenging a key part of Baltimore's west-side redevelopment has been dismissed, eliminating the last legal obstacle at the trial court level to the city's long-stalled "superblock" project. The lawsuit was filed in February by companies controlled by Angelos and developer David Hillman, who are west-side property owners. It argued that the agreement between the city and the developer it selected to redevelop the six-block blighted area improperly included a key parcel not listed in the original bid package.

The last big development parcel in Baltimore's superblock project would be filled with 152 new apartments, shops, some offices and a parking garage, under a proposal by a west-side property owner and a former city housing official. Baltimore Development Corp. said yesterday that it received one proposal for the block of parking lots and vacant buildings bounded by Park Avenue and Clay, Liberty and Lexington streets. The BDC, the city's development arm, had offered the site for redevelopment in April in hopes of continuing momentum in revitalizing the deteriorated heart of the city's old retail district.

Responding to pressure from preservationists and civil rights activists fighting to preserve the former Read's drugstore building downtown, developers of the $150 million Lexington Square project that would have razed the building now agree to incorporate two of its exterior walls into their project. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake plans to announce Tuesday that the developer, Lexington Square Partners, has agreed to save the walls facing Howard and Lexington streets from the building — site of a 1955 lunch counter sit-in.

A forum of about 80 people who gathered last night for a brainstorming session on what to do with Glen Burnie's Superblock agreed on several fundamental issues.Among the most basic: Lose the name."I would like to get rid of the Superblock idea and give it a whole new name," said Kathy DeGrange, a member of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association board.Superblock just does not convey the concept of what residents want to see in the 5.6-acre plot next to the Arundel Center North town center.

Baltimore's efforts to redevelop a large tract on the west side has hit a formidable roadblock. A recent ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit challenging the legality of the development process. And there's little reason to expect that the driving force behind the lawsuit, attorney Peter G. Angelos, won't want his day in court. That leaves Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore Development Corp., which is overseeing the project, in an untenable position. They can fight the lawsuit in court or try and reason with Mr. Angelos and company outside of court.

Baltimore's development agency is urging Mayor Martin O'Malley to select a patchwork of firms to overhaul a key swath of downtown's west side, despite claims by prominent business groups that the city could do better. All told, four developers propose a $100 million-plus overhaul that would exceed the cost of the $90 million Centerpoint retail and residential complex taking shape nearby. The plans for the "superblock" are meant to revive a stretch of Lexington and Fayette streets, linking Charles Center to the University of Maryland, Baltimore and recent projects such as the Hippodrome Theatre.

It is commendable that preservationists and civil rights activists want to bring attention to the 1955 sit-ins at downtown Baltimore's Read's drugstore, which forced the integration of the chain's 37 lunch counters in the region. But the idea that the only way to do so is by preserving the entire building is misguided. The interior has been remodeled several times since then, the lunch counter is long gone, and after years of vacancy and neglect, the exterior is crumbling, and the interior is beyond dilapidated.

An office building at Howard and Lexington streets in downtown Baltimore, owned by Los Angeles billionaire David Murdock, is for sale in what could be an early test of how investors regard west-side redevelopment. Murdock is selling One Market Center, the former Hutzler's Palace department store and an adjacent seven-story office building he developed, to take advantage of investors' strong appetite for commercial properties at a time when the west side's revitalization appears to be gaining momentum, said Richard S. Toppe, president of a Castle and Cooke division that manages the property.